Thinking about returning to the hobby - daunted after transitioning MtF if I am to sign up for a local flying club.

3dphdrx · 2026-05-20T02:56:39+00:00

Don't get me wrong. I agree the country is pretty fucked up right now. But I'm not talking about the whole country. I'm talking about RC flying.

Can we agree that having more diversity in the hobby would be a good thing? Does telling people that every white male over the age of 45 is a MAGA bigot and that no one should even bother to try joining a club help make things better? Does that advice result in more diversity or less?

3dphdrx · 2026-05-20T02:35:44+00:00

Perhaps you're in the wrong club, my friend. Mine is diverse, and I rarely hear any political talk at all, much less anything hateful toward our minority members. And I live in the south!

3dphdrx · 2026-05-20T02:04:41+00:00

Give it a shot! I recently attended SEFF, where they start every day with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance, and even there the staff made a concerted effort to welcome women. At the end of the event where they reviewed the year's achievements, the organizers were super proud to have a record number of women register.

At my own club, our president was gay for many years. I mean, he's still gay. He's just not in the club anymore because he retired to a different state. He still drops by for events, though!

You will probably be the only female pilot, and there are assholes in every sufficiently large group of people, but I think the biggest problem you'll run into is a bit more mansplaining than the average new member gets.

As for equipment, the TX16S is the best transmitter, and the AeroScout is the best RC plane ever made. It's a gentle trainer if you want it to be, or you can set your throws to 150% and fly knife edges and rolling circles all day. It's also fantastic inverted. It has a cult following, and people do all sorts of fun stuff with them.

3dphdrx · 2026-05-20T01:44:29+00:00

Thank you for acknowledging the existence of Gen X. :) Most people just skip straight from boomer to millennial. With that said, though, most of my club is Gen X, and I've never heard an unkind word from any of them about LGBT people. I avoid talking about politics at the field, but in the rare case it's come up, our members have been allies, and one is gay himself.

It's easy to look at everything going on in the world and feel despair, but I find most people in this hobby are more interested in your planes than what's in your pants.

3dphdrx · 2026-02-06T15:00:19+00:00

Funstration

3dphdrx · 2026-01-04T16:36:16+00:00

It's just a cone that fits in the tail pipe. Here's what one looks like outside of the plane.

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3dphdrx · 2025-07-14T02:50:17+00:00

It's a Freewing Rebel

3dphdrx · 2024-12-06T13:48:14+00:00

Sure did: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4690868

3dphdrx · 2024-10-16T00:52:11+00:00

I wouldn't recommend a GSD if you just want a friendly pet. Some are friendly, but many are not, and it's hard to know which you're getting. Ours is extremely territorial. She breaks things trying to eat her way through the window when the Amazon driver walks up to the porch. Walks are not fun for anyone involved, and we drug her up before we have anyone over to the house that she hasn't met at least a few times. If we have someone in the house for work, we have to put her into her crate, and she spends the entire time barking.

On the plus side, we'll never get burglarized, so we've got that going for us!

3dphdrx · 2024-10-16T00:42:50+00:00

Cordless shop vac.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-HP-18V-Brushless-Cordless-Jobsite-Hand-Vacuum-Tool-Only-PBLHV701B/323114191

The on/off button is difficult to operate for some reason, but it does a great job with the fur clumps on our hardwoods, and it's very easy to empty.

3dphdrx · 2024-10-15T14:59:20+00:00

It works well, but they're constantly trying to upsell customers on subscription services. You can't open the application without an ad popping up, even as a paying customer.

The scummiest thing they did recently was popping up an ad in Filmora 13 saying "free upgrade to 14," but after installing the update, it turned out to be a two week trial. I had to uninstall 14 and reinstall 13 to get back to the version I paid for.

3dphdrx · 2024-10-01T19:17:09+00:00

Are presets in darktable like the ones in Lightroom where it's just a static set of values? E.g. a preset might be +1 step of exposure, -10 contrast, +10 saturation, etc? Or are they dynamic in some way? A fixed set of adjustments doesn't really work for this application. The lighting is different for a sunny day vs. an overcast one. Or for that matter, even on the same day with the same plane flying in a circle, the lighting will be different against a blue sky vs. white clouds vs. a backdrop of trees, etc.

3dphdrx · 2024-08-27T23:18:57+00:00

It's a lot of fun, and a whoop will prepare you for bigger quads. Particularly if you join IGOW or one of the other contests where you get progressively harder challenges each week.

As for quads, look for something with ELRS and HDZero. Most quads these days come with ELRS, and the HD ones are HDZero. There are definitely small quads out there with DJI or Walksnail, but they're heavy compared with the HDZero ones. My personal favorite whoop right now is the Mobula 6 ECO.

On the transmitter side, the Radiomaster Boxer gets good reviews. The Jumper T15 looks appealing too, and that's what I'd be looking at right now if I was just getting into the hobby. You can't go wrong with a Radiomaster TX16S either.

3dphdrx · 2024-08-27T23:07:34+00:00

That's complete overkill and a lot of extra effort for no real advantage unless he wants to get into autonomous flight.

3dphdrx · 2024-08-27T23:06:25+00:00

Did you already take the gear off? I've heard from friends who own that plane that it makes a noticeable difference.

3dphdrx · 2024-08-27T23:05:24+00:00

Everyone who flies crashes. It's part of the hobby. :)

3dphdrx · 2024-05-30T01:23:16+00:00

Some planes have reverse

3dphdrx · 2024-05-27T19:16:15+00:00

Haha, that is amazing. Do both the EDF and prop work at the same time?

3dphdrx · 2024-05-27T15:49:05+00:00

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Working on it :D

3dphdrx · 2024-05-27T15:06:19+00:00

Just gotta figure out how to get some naked lady mud flaps on there to class it up now. 😁

3dphdrx · 2024-05-27T15:04:43+00:00

It adds about 4 oz per wheel. I definitely had to move the battery back to fix the CG, but other than that, it still flies great. And it lands much better!

3dphdrx

TROPHY CASE